Nov. 9, 2005 - Sharelle Johnson loves Fridays. After school she
hangs with her friends and snacks on tasty treats. For the
seventh-grader, there is nowhere else she would rather be than
TechGYRLS.

The after-school program is sponsored by the YWCA and has been
running successfully at La Cima Middle School for more than a
year.

"I think it's great," Johnson said from her computer.

This week she is working on a Lego project. She will construct
an image and write step-by-step instructions for assembling the
piece. Her friends then turn to assemble the same image using
Johnson's directions.

It is a technical writing and reading exercise, said Cindy
Rolewski, technology teacher and advisor for TechGYRLS.

TechGYRLS began as a nationwide program in 1997. It was
originated by the YWCA in response to the growing gender gap in the
world of technology. The program is used to encourage girls to
pursue careers in technology and engineering.

In Tucson, La Cima, within the Amphitheater Public School
District, Naylor Middle School and Menlo Park Elementary School in
the Tucson Unified School District, and Octotillo Elementary School
in the Sunnyside School District all participate in the TechGYRLS
program, said Lisa Winton, YWCA director for girl's programs.

Winton started the Tucson chapter of the program in 2002. The
free after-school program is opened to any interested girl. The
YWCA foots the bill for the cost of the program.

Many of the sites are seeing success because students who are
often involved in the program don't have personal computers at home
to practice and develop skills, Winton said. At TechGYRLS the
students can learn to keep an online journal, work with word
processing software and various computer programs.

"It helps with everything, from keyboarding to problem solving
to using the Internet," she said.

It is planting the seeds for further interest in a field that
women often are not encouraged to pursue, she said.

"Things that prepare them for later success," she said, is
taught during TechGYRLS.

The all-girl environment is what encouraged Hollie Pallanes to
join the program.

The 12-year-old has no computer at home and decided she wanted
to learn tools she can use during school. Being with her friends
was also a draw, she said.

"I learned that we can do anything a guy can do," she said.

Too often boys at the middle school try to out-do the girls
during class, Pallanes said. That intimidates her and her friends,
so she doesn't want to participate as often. During TechGYRLS, she
doesn't have that problem.

"I'm doing something I like to do," she said.

More than 17 students participate in the program at La Cima
Middle School.

"The fact that they stay here until 5:15 p.m. on a Friday is
amazing," Rolewski said.

It shows real initiative to learn, she said.

She has been successful in a career teaching technology for the
last 15 years. She wants to encourage her students to look into a
field that is challenging and rewarding.

"We assume that kids all have technology, but they don't," she
said.

At a recent Tech-GYRLS meeting, she was surprised at how many of
the girls didn't know what an e-mail was, let alone how to send
one, she said.

The girls were so happy when they could send e-mails back and
forth to each other, she said. Now the students are working on
designing word processing documents and will soon begin a Lego
computer-programming project.